Louisiana Legislature Log

Written by the author of the blog "Between The Lines," Louisiana State University Shreveport political science professor Jeffrey D. Sadow, this blog provides commentary on actions of the Louisiana Legislature during its sessions, and even a little in between them. Check daily when the Legislature meets to find out the good, the bad, and the ugly of its legislative process with special guest appearances by various state elected executives.

01 July 2018

And so it comes to this: revealing the 2018 Regular
Session on the Louisiana Legislature voting scorecard. With all business
disposed of, legislators and the governor receive grades (barring a miraculous
veto override session). Eleven bills were selected and weighed for computation,
all but two having been voted upon in both chambers. These were chosen from the
watch list compiled throughout the session. For a bill’s vote(s) to be
selected, in one chamber there had to be more than one legislator not voting
for the winning or losing side.

Being that passage of bills depends upon the
seated membership of a body, not voting is counted as a negative vote. However,
if a legislator had a leave of absence granted for that day, his absent votes
weren’t counted for bills voted on that day and the score adjusted to take that
into account.

Here are the bills with votes for final passage in
every case on which the scorecard was computed, with the conservative/reform
position and the weighing indicated:

HB 54 –
would make for more realistic recall provisions; a conservative/reform vote is
for (10 percent)

SB 462 –
would create incentives building more housing; a conservative/reform vote is
for (15 percent)

The theme for the 2018 regular session seemed to
be polarization, perhaps because of the stridency of Gov. John Bel Edwards’
insistence on funding larger government. Even as this blog doesn’t track the
budget and tax measures can’t be considered during regular sessions in these
even-numbered years, likely that conflict permeated to other issues.

One way this manifested was in the average
legislator scores by party. Combining chambers, Republicans averaged over 79
while Democrats had a mean of under 37. Interestingly, only small inter-chamber
differences emerged, with Republican senators fewer than three points lower
than representatives, while Senate Democrats scored less than a point higher
than their House co-partisans. Overall, this separated the chambers by a
miniscule quarter-point.

However, the gap approaching 43 points isn’t a
record, as 2012 saw a slightly wider margin. Still, the GOP average was the
highest in history (going back to 2004), although Democrats have scored
significantly lower three times, including last year.

Driving that Republican level was an unprecedented
12 representatives and five senators scoring 100 (none did last year). By
contrast for Democrats, only state Sen. Yvonne Colomb
scored zero – and that came from a single vote. On the other nine, she had an
excused absence and didn’t vote. Among Democrats, only state Rep. Marcus Hunter
scored in the single digits.

As another sign of polarization, of the House GOP
only three Republicans scored below 50 while 43 Republicans scored higher than
the highest-scoring Democrat, state Rep. Andy Anders.
Only four other Democrats joined him scoring above 50. In two GOP cases, this
could be explained by a number of missed votes. In the Senate, missed votes
also explained the lowest scoring Republican, the only one below 50, state Sen.
Ryan Gatti.
Only three Democrats scored above 50, with the highest, state Sen. John Milkovich,
outscored by 15 Republicans.

The House:

Bacala

100

Republican

Edmonds

100

Republican

Garafalo

100

Republican

Harris, L

100

Republican

Havard

100

Republican

Hazel

100

Republican

Hodges

100

Republican

Horton

100

Republican

Morris, Jim

100

Republican

Pugh

100

Republican

Pylant

100

Republican

Schexnayder

100

Republican

Amedee

95

Republican

Hilferty

95

Republican

Huval

95

Republican

Ivey

95

Republican

Stokes

95

Republican

DeVillier

90

Republican

Mack

90

Republican

Miguez

90

Republican

Muscarello

90

Republican

Seabaugh

90

Republican

Thomas

90

Republican

Davis

89

Republican

Crews

89

Republican

Bagley

85

Republican

Berthelot

85

Republican

Falconer

85

Republican

Magee

85

Republican

McFarland

85

Republican

Pearson

85

Republican

Stefanski

85

Republican

Wright

85

Republican

Barras

80

Republican

Brown, T

80

Independent

Carmody

80

Republican

Coussan

80

Republican

Henry

80

Republican

Landry, N

80

Republican

Simon

80

Republican

Morris, Jay

79

Republican

Emerson

75

Republican

Howard

75

Republican

Pope

75

Republican

Abraham

70

Republican

Anders

70

Democrat

Carter, S

70

Republican

Hoffman

70

Republican

Bishop, S

65

Republican

Chaney

65

Republican

Dwight

65

Republican

Foil

65

Republican

Guinn

65

Republican

Leopold

65

Republican

Miller, G

65

Republican

Talbot

65

Republican

Connick

60

Republican

Billiot

55

Democrat

Brown, C

55

Democrat

Reynolds

55

Democrat

White, M

55

Democrat

Zeringue

55

Republican

Danahay

50

Democrat

Gisclair

50

Democrat

Hill

50

Independent

Hollis

50

Republican

LeBas

50

Democrat

Norton

50

Democrat

Stagni

50

Republican

Marino

47

Independent

Richard

47

Independent

Carter, R

45

Democrat

Jones

45

Democrat

Thibaut

45

Democrat

Abramson

40

Democrat

Brass

40

Democrat

Carpenter

40

Democrat

Franklin

40

Democrat

Hall

40

Democrat

Harris, J

40

Democrat

Jackson

40

Democrat

Lyons

40

Democrat

Pierre

40

Democrat

Shadoin

35

Republican

Jenkins

35

Democrat

Armes

30

Democrat

Bouie

30

Democrat

Carter, G

30

Democrat

Cox

30

Democrat

Gaines

30

Democrat

Glover

30

Democrat

Hensgens

30

Republican

Johnson

30

Democrat

Jordan

30

Democrat

Landry, T

30

Democrat

Cromer

25

Republican

Duplessis

22

Democrat

Bagneris

20

Democrat

James

20

Democrat

Jefferson

20

Democrat

Leger

20

Democrat

Marcelle

20

Democrat

Miller, D

20

Democrat

Smith

10

Democrat

Hunter

5

Democrat

And the Senate:

Appel

100

Republican

Erdey

100

Republican

Hewitt

100

Republican

Peacock

100

Republican

Walsworth

100

Republican

Donahue

90

Republican

Lambert

89

Republican

Fannin

87

Republican

Long

85

Republican

Allain

80

Republican

Mizell

80

Republican

Claitor

75

Republican

Perry

75

Republican

Riser

75

Republican

Cortez

72

Republican

Alario

70

Republican

Milkovich

70

Democrat

White, B

70

Republican

Chabert

65

Republican

Johns

65

Republican

Mills

65

Republican

Smith, G

65

Democrat

Smith, J

65

Republican

Morrish

64

Republican

Martiny

60

Republican

Thompson

60

Democrat

Ward

55

Republican

Tarver

50

Democrat

Luneau

45

Democrat

Gatti

40

Republican

LaFleur

40

Democrat

Bishop, W

35

Democrat

Carter, T

30

Democrat

Morrell

30

Democrat

Price

30

Democrat

Barrow

25

Democrat

Boudreaux

22

Democrat

Peterson

20

Democrat

Colomb

0

Democrat

Finally, Edwards racked up a 44, which about fits
his average of just under 47 for his three years. This makes him a bit less
liberal/populist than the typical legislative Democrat, but much less
conservative/reformist than the typical Republican legislator.